Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-04-22
CHAPTER XIII.
SHE IS MY WIFE.
What did it mean

The face vanished in an instant As
| quickly as she could collect her senses, Shr.
| ley followed Mr., Morrison out the hallway.
| She went around III the porch to the window
where the face had been. The master was
| nowhere about. No living creature was
there. She stepped out upon the lawn be-
yond, and peered about under the starlight.
She saw nothing, heard nothing.
All was night and silence.
So still it was out there, so entirely all
nature seemed unconscious Of anything UNI
usual, that Shirley could almost have be-
lieved nothing unusual had happened, and
that she had imagined the face in the glass
There was a dim light inside the room, a
brighter light outside in the porch. Might
not the optical laws Of refraction and refec-
ton, aided by crooked pane of glass, have
twisted the image of some very commonplace
| object into that distorted, demoniac shape!
She had read of such things
AT any rate, Shirley was not one to fret
herself unnecessarily. She had had so many
real worries in her life that she never went
out of her way to hunt up unreal ones.
Above all and before all, too, there was the
supreme comforting thought, if anything
was wrong, he, the master, would set it right.
He would see that no harm came to her.
That was the thought in her mind as she
went back inside the cottage, and to her own
room
The room, it will be remembered, was UPON
the ground floor.
The girl sat down beside the low, broad
window. She was too restless, too happy
to sleep. She said over and again to herself
Fate has been very good to me, after all.
never believed such joy was to be for me,
Shirley Carstone."
The master loved her. He had told her so.
That was enough No vision of guile, of
treachery or of trouble crossed her thought.
Her noble, innocent nature saw no falseness,
no weakness in those she loved She trusted
them wholly. Yea, to the worlds end
Looking down the valley into the years
that were to come, Shirley saw only bright
ness. Perplexities would come perhaps Her
hands would still be full of work, that she
knew. Nay, as the world went, it might be
long before he could come and claim her.
She even thought Of that. What then? The
master loved her. That knowledge would be
strange, sweet presence that walked beside
her day by day to the end, turning hen heavy
load into lightness. She laughed in the face
Of storm, of darkness, of the deadly light
ming. The sweet, magic presence that walked
turn MI ber life into h,ne S,,v ond .ne'i anu
And har moan, Tbo intanso ' Nv, t Iose oiouu
Glad bonnd Half ber ipsr,;rat;n go sass
so.n,ad coma u,ho, tha r,oa.o. iop. a'ion nau
,h, ,,;I,eu,s that dor 1onm aS ''tS nei uhuer
tao,' o+'.aaa Wy i's as1' No" IL came
Sho uo,,IJ ,,ro1o hanao,f -. W. l'o nei poeh-
,oIo IT, iho,',, ~ WIZ wy Vi sucn
hIosaoa - t1 la,,'oa '"' vi hei' III 'he
Dc, De-. =. et la. W .o,.'e VI.
i'Apt -. nei 49, v'eiohs shirley sat there
uou. - .p ,ii,, Iuu' ine was aC railu' Inc
~ ~ l ,oul VI. "a VIC ,os ahy qulVered
II, VI, u1l an 'iiiiiu piro chlrped ialnty
Ho o."'' VI ''iie' e"eP' LII III the open
"t,ruo",
oiiliey S'ai"u up siniieu ana Threw her
SCH upon uei oeu' uresscu Us she was She
. ual 'pIn nei "eo Vi .housnc ouC ior the
s.lno. III h'o minutes sho was IN the lahd OF
VI Uein9'
90 "'S " sounu eieelcr' Inc lashlon
ST., WIS souNs i','y was Jus' coming IN
Jl. 'e' We IVY y, 'n"o N,i'u' one had